Defeated by Time
by Jingyee1511
Summary: Setting in New Moon. Too late for Edward, and Alice couldn't escape after she stepped in coz Bella couldn't make it. Rated K just in case. I'm not good at summaries, but pLeASe read and review! JasperAlice, EdwardBella.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: I never owned Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does, of course.**

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"Edward!" I screamed, knowing it was useless. The crowd was too loud, and my voice was breathless with exertion. I could not even see him, and the alleyway I knew he was seemed further than I thought possible. The clock tolled again.

"Mi scusi, si sta procedendo abbastanza una scena qui, signora," a man said, grabbing my shoulder.

"Let me go!" I shrieked, pulling his grip off as the clock tolled heartlessly. I was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings, for in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live. A chill went down my spine, as I shuddered at the thought. An image of a pale granite figure with red irises, looming high over me, baring its pearl white teeth at me. No. I must not think about it. It would shake my nerves and shatter me, when I needed to race against time. For Edward. The clock tolled again, mocking me.

"Edward! Edward, no!" So close, yet so far. Too close not to reach him, but too far for him to see me… I was barreling through a circle of tall men in red blazers, towards a break in the throng. The clock tolled once more, drowning my scream.

I couldn't remember any other time in reality when I had wished above all other wishes that Edward could hear my thoughts. If only the glitch in my head would go away, and Edward could know the truth that I was not dead, that the overwhelming guilt he felt for my death… No one would blame him for my death anyway, not when I was the stupid fool who threw myself off the ruddy cliff… To hear him. It was stupid, stupid, stupid, to hear my subconscious at the cost of reality. If Edward died… A spasm of pain shot through my torso, that that has nothing to do with the exertion of running. The clock's toll rang deeply in my ears, making my eardrums throb.

A family of four stood nearest to the alley's mouth, two girls in crimson dresses and dark hair. Imagination or reality, I don't know, but it looked like something bright in the shadows, behind them. The clock tolled again.

I willed my legs to take bigger strides as my hand flew to my stitch… The pain would be nothing, nothing like losing Edward again. The clock tolled, and the littlest girl clamped her hands over her ears.

I rasped out his name over and over again, burning my throat and tearing my lungs to do so. I swerved around the father- he clutched the baby out of my way- and sprinted for the gloomy breach behind as the clock tolled over my head.

I could see him now. And I could see that he could not see me.

It was really him, no hallucination this time. And I realized that my delusions were more flawed that I'd realized; they'd never done him justice.

Edward stood, motionless as a statue, just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. His eyes were closed; the rings underneath him were deep purple, his arms relaxed at his sides, his palms turned forward. His expression was very peaceful, like he was dreaming pleasant things. The marble skin of his chest was bare- there was a small pile of white fabric at his feet. The light reflecting from the pavement of the square gleamed dimly from his skin.

I'd never seen anything more beautiful- even as I ran, gasping and screaming, I could appreciate that. And the last seven months meant nothing. And his words in the forest meant nothing. And it did not matter if he did not want me. I would never want anything but him, no matter how long I lived.

The clock tolled, and he took a large stride toward the light. A low soprano voice rang, familiar, whispering and urgent. No time. No time, and I had no chance to save Edward. Of course Alice would be the only hope. _Alice!_ But I could not afford to turn. _Alice, Alice! We aren't going to make it, and despite my efforts…_

I screamed for him, and tears ran down my face unexpectantly, blurring my view. It was insane, crazy, stupid, to cry at this time, when Edward-! But he couldn't do this, he couldn't, he just couldn't, he couldn't do this to me, to Carlise, to Esme, to Alice, to everyone-!

A loud "thunk" near me, then a dark shadow loomed over me, as Edward raised his foot to take the step that would put him directly in the sun. I was too far, too far to pull him back…

A gust of cold wind brushed by me, as Alice and I screamed.

"Edward, no!"

Boulder against boulder, a loud clap (of lightning) at the same time the clock tolled.

Then, before I could put another toe forward, my good vampires were obscured by grey cloaks, and a horrible metallic screeching ripped through the alleyway. I dug into my heels, mouth hanging open in horror as the shocking sound exploded into a tower of fire and acrid smoke.

I slumped against the side of the wall as grey robes lapped at my heels.

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No meaning existed anymore. I heard the sounds of celebration form the main plaza, yet, could not register it. How could anyone celebrate?

Why didn't the Volturi get me? It was wrong, I shouldn't survive… Not when my only reason to survive was dead.

Why did we have to meet? Had I known it was going to be so heartbreaking, it would have been better if we hadn't met…

No. Even up to this point, as I could literally feel a sword slicing me into pieces, I could not bring myself to regret meeting him.

I choked out a humorless laugh, but it sounded like gagging.

I would gladly have taken an eternity of nightmares, it was nothing as compared to this. The burning fire in my hand last spring… the drowning… Nothing. Nothing compared to this. I'd take those a hundred times, a thousand times… It was nothing compared to this.

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	2. JasperCarlisle Pov

**Disclaimer: Of course Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight! How could it be a bestseller if I owned it?**

**Thanks for those fabulous reviews, they made my day! Thank you! Hm... I hope i don't disappoint you if this chapter was not as good as you hoped. Also if this fanfic should only have 3 chapters in total. Thanks again and please review!**

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Jasper POV

I trudged forward, behind Carlisle and Emmett. Our party stood out, swirls of anxiety amidst a pool of celebration. Part of me finally was on the same wavelength as Edward. A fitting place Volturra was for suicidal vampires. It probably was something I'd follow his footsteps in, seeking death. If Alice… no, Alice promised that she'd get away. She would, why wouldn't she?

"What did Alice say again?" whispered Esme.

"'We won't make it. Clock tower, side alley. Love you, love Jasper. Take care of him, and Bella,'" Carlisle replied, worry saturating his voice. When we'd all boarded the plane to Italy, Carlisle's silver phone had rung.

No, it couldn't mean what it meant. It was impossible. Alice was infallible. But why did I listen to her? I should have gone to Italy with Emmett and Rosalie, but-

"The plaza is full of different scents, seeking them out may take some time. Shall we split up or…? Jasper?"

I didn't reply, but just sprinted, carefully avoiding contact with humans. I had sensed a great depression blob in the sea of celebration, even if a bit further from others. Sorrow, regret, pain… And this scent was definitely human. Bella. Faint streaks of vampire lingered in the alleyway, most concentrated of which was Edward. But there was an edge to the smell.

I spun to a stop neatly infront of Bella, and felt the other four slide to a stop behind me.

"Bella," Carlisle called tentatively, kneeling infront of her. "Bella?"

He might as well have addressed the brick floor, for all the replies he got. I glanced around her, and snatched up Alice's phone. It was smashed, as if having fallen from a great height…

"Bella, where is Edward?"

The vacant brown eyes flickered at the word.

I leapt up, following Alice's scent. She was running here, above Bella…

Bella's emotion suddenly weighed tonnes, and I tuned out of it. Yet, why? It felt like my mind was sluggishly slow.

"Carlisle?"

"I'm here Bella. What happened to Edward? To Alice?" There was a faint hint of hysteria at the end.

Leaping down to where Alice's scent ended, I realized that it was also where Edward was last. Looking down, I grasped the answer as soon as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Volturi," we said in unison, mine a snarl, Bella's a whimper as the word was formed.

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Carlisle POV

A chill ran down my spine as I registered the powder at Jasper's feet. Ashes.

Esme cried out in despair and hugged Bella, who was crying.

Rose staggered over, falling onto her knees in horror infront of the remains.

Emmett caught Jasper in an unbreakable hold as Jasper thrust himself forward, snarling and snapping, eyes beyond reason with half crazed loss.

I just stood there, muscles freezing into place as it registered.

Never had I known such pain. Even as I failed to save patients even with my enhanced abilities, as I mourned the inability to save one more person, it was never like this. I seemed to have been on the icy savannahs of Antarctica, rather that early evening at Italy.

An internal force shook me, as I trembled. The tears which did not come fell as I collapsed on the pavement, staring. Edward, my first ever companion. Another stab to my chest, when Elizabeth Mason's fierce voice punctured the picture of the angelic boy in bronze hair. Her final request, to save her Edward. I had given him immortality, but still, eventually, failed.

The floor beneath me rattled and trembled in time with me, as Alice's infallible face came to mind. Behind me, Jasper stopped fighting.

Then, at no visible signal, he threw his face into the indigo sky.

A new sound ripped from his throat, putting all our suffering to shame.

A mourning cry, beautiful in its own way. A cry of loss, injected with the depth of his pain.

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	3. CharlieJasperBella Pov

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs not to me, but Stephenie Meyer and you know that.**

**Thanks for the reviews so very much! I didn't know that chapter would have this kinda reaction. Hm... The shortest chapter, you know. Still... I hope this one is satisfactory?  
I'm playing with the idea of an epilouge, though i'd only post it if i did it well... If i really attempt it, it won't be a sad chapter, i think. Though that may take time... For the time being, take this as the ending? Thanks again for the reviews!**

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Charlie POV

I pulled out the note again, staring at the messy scrawls of ink. Three days. Three _whole_ days, _missing_. Without a single hint of her whereabouts, no number, nothing.

Here I was, worrying myself sick, and she was running off with Alice Cullen, for that boy whom she cared so much… that boy who had hurt her so much… had I known it would hurt her so much in forks, I'd rather her stay in Phoenix…

"I hear the doctor's car," Jacob said, leaping up from the sofa, peering out of the window.

I rushed to the glass window. It was them, alright. Throwing open the door, I stumbled out of the door. Jacob, following silently, caught my shoulder, preventing me from falling in my face.

The black door of the car opened, and Rosalie emerged, wrapping her arms around Bella's shoulder. She wobbled, unsteady on her feet. Esme hurried to her side as Carlisle stepped out.

"Bella? What's the matter with her? What have you done to her?" I shouted at Carlisle, as Jacob strode to Bella's side.

Looking into Carlisle's face, all my anger disappeared. He looked more like an aged man than before, anguish woven into every fiber of him.

He sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Charlie. Edward was suicidal in LA, and Alice reckoned Bella could help him," Carlisle said, before taking a deep breath. "When they arrived, Edward was jumping."

Watching the boy Bella loved so much, fall, and being unable to do anything... I shuddered violently, horrified as Carlisle continued, "Alice fell with him. Bella was there. I'm sorry."

I didn't think i could take so much. Two young lives lost, just because they were defeated by seconds... Glancing back to the car, I saw Jasper looking like how Bella did after Sam Uley found her. His pain shadowed mine, and I could not help feeling sorry for them.

I turned away without another word, not trusting myself to speak, steering Bella through the front door, closing the door on the beautiful, broken family.

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Jasper POV

"Jazz," Emmett started as we pulled up infront of the white, abandoned house. I ignored him, throwing open the front door. The hinges creaked in protest. I ran up the staircase to our room, slamming the door behind me. Falling onto the bed face first, throwing a pillow over my ears, attempting to drown out the conversation downstairs. I tuned out entirely from their moods, focusing completely on my own. Any more feelings would be unbearable.

I thought the exhilaration of running could free me, at least for a while, from the emotions more binding than chains. That the locks would fly with the wind, freeing me from the murderous pain inside. It didn't. It just let me reach my shield, my shell, faster.

Inhaling deeply, Alice's scent wafted into my nose, letting two extreme emotions rule me, tearing me apart while holding me together. Love and thorough depression, holding me together while ripping me apart, as my body spasmed and trembled with the tears that would not come. If only they would, and sleep could pull me into the dark peace where I could escape briefly. If only death came as easily jumping off a building, as Carlisle claimed, or even cliffs… But the nearest cliff was in Quileute border, and the werewolves were so crazy about their land, their tribe…

The werewolves. Young, immature, volatile, Edward's favourite words to describe them.

My eyes widened as a morbid fantasy came to me. The answer was so simple, too easy… Why hadn't I thought of that? It was foolproof, for Edward was no longer here to hear my plan. Alice, my Alice, was gone forever, no longer here to watch over the future…

For the first time since becoming a vampire, I felt cold. I felt as if my shattered heart was beating, adding to the intolerable pain. I did not want to exist where she didn't. Whether there was or wasn't an afterlife, I'm following her. In life or death, so long I had Alice.

With a spring like a jaguar, I lept out of the window.

_Anything for you, Alice._

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Bella POV

I rammed head first into a wall of flesh. Staggering, I sluggishly noticed that Jacob had stopped. His eyes were wide with disbelief and rage. A howl broke through the repeated tapping of the rain on the floor, giving La Push a sinister touch, like a scene from a horror movie.

"I don't believe it!" gasped Jacob.

"What?" I asked, sounding dead rather than curious.

"Jasper Cullen is hunting in our land," Jacob replied through his teeth. "Bella, get into the house. And don't come out till I return!" he shouted, sprinting into the woods.

I stood, immobile as streaks of rain ran down my face. Rain, tears, who could tell them apart? I felt trapped in the old nightmare, where no matter where i turned, Edward was out of my reach... When I was at another part of the woods altogether, another era… where the pain didn't exceed this… When I'd chased after Edward despite his rejection, before everything was taken from me again. I walked, moving through timeless space as the sky grew darker, and rain pelt harder than before.

Crashes of wave against rock alerted me to my surroundings. The cliff. The cliff which Jacob agreed to take me. It was as if my legs knew where i craved subconciously to be. I closed my eyes expectantly, but Edward's velvet voice did not greet me. Of course not. He left. And this time he really will never return.

My eyes burned with tears as I thought of him, though another voice greeted me from my memories. Soprano, like bells, close to the beauty of which Edward's held.

_"Knock it off, Bella, or we're turning around in New York and going back to Forks."_

"What?"

_"You know what. If we're too late for Edward, I'm doing my damnedest to get you back to Charlie, and I don't want any trouble from you. Do you understand that?"_

_"Sure, Alice."_

"No trouble."

_"Scout's honour," I'd muttered._

It was as if my mind was persuading me against this. Perhaps La Push was really granting our wishes. But he was the one who broke his promise first, the reason why I didn't honour his. Alice… Alice was not around anymore, it didn't count. I took one step forward; I was now at the edge. The dark swirls of water no longer looked menacing, only morbidly inviting.

I faltered as Edward's words crept into my head. "Keep yourself safe… for Charlie." Then Jacob's: "For Charlie. For me."

_Sorry Charlie. Sorry Jacob. This I cannot live through._ There was nothing they could do. Like in Italy, they were defeated by time.

As I fell, I heard the anguished howl of a wolf. Then, the icy water blocked out everything.

Everything but my Edward.

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**Well, that's the end. Please give me comments for this chapter/entire fanfic. I'd really appreciate suggestions on how to improve on my writing style and on the overall story. Lots of thanks for reading my fanfic- though will you kindly click the "Submit Review" button? Thanks a million! )**


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